


Determination Strong

by al_ittlebit



Series: She-Rawr [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Bow is a good friend, Gen, Missing Scene, catra does some more soul searching, how is this becoming a series, this wasn't meant to be a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:40:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24338278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/al_ittlebit/pseuds/al_ittlebit
Summary: At the end of a long day on Krytis, Catra has some realisations that keep her awake. Bow is surprisingly (not) easy to talk to about them.
Relationships: Bow & Catra (She-Ra)
Series: She-Rawr [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757089
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	Determination Strong

**Author's Note:**

> Oh good grief, I did not plan on making this a series but my fingers got away from me so here is part 2! Again, unbeta'd so sowwy for any typos.
> 
> Title is (kind of) from Free, once again from Barbie as the Princess & the Pauper bc that movie still slaps.

Between landing on Krytis, meeting Melog and discovering Horde Prime’s weakness, it isn’t surprising that everyone is exhausted by the end of the day. They are all in favour of the plan to have Melog cloak them as they run the barricade set up around Etheria, but on the off chance that it doesn’t work and they are detected, they’ll be in for the fight of their lives. Best they’re all rested before that. They agree to spend the night on Krytis and head for Etheria in the morning.

Catra silently sneaks out of the ship where the others are still asleep and heads towards the deserted Krytis landscape. She knows she should really be getting some rest, but after the adrenaline and excitement of the day wore off, she found herself left with a weird sensation in her stomach, like her insides are being twisted into knots. Not the good kind of knots, like when Adora pulls that dumb smirking face because she thinks she can read Catra so easily. This is the bad kind of knots, like whenever she said something a little too harsh and Scorpia would make that surprised face, like she didn’t know what Catra was like. Catra always hated these knots.

She trudges towards one of many mounds of rubble that litter the surface of Krytis. It isn’t difficult to make out the leftovers of destroyed Horde equipment - rigid and imposing between the wilder, natural landforms of the planet. Catra quickly scales one mound, careful not to dislodge any loose pieces of debris, and perches on the summit of it. She looks out towards the Krytian horizon. Despite the irreparable damage, it is easy to imagine how beautiful the planet must have been, once upon a time. Melog described it to her as a magnificent place, with never-ending wonders to be discovered. Of course, nothing the Horde touches can remain that way.

Another knot forms in her stomach.

“Hey!”

Catra’s head whips around. Standing at the bottom of the mound she’s sitting on, Bow smiles warily and waves up at her.

“What’re you doing?” She asks. “You should be resting for tomorrow.”

“So should you,” he responds simply and begins climbing the mound, more slowly than she had but with a surprising amount of finesse. When he reaches the top, Catra shifts over and he sits beside her. “I’ll tell you if you tell me?”

Catra scoffs.

“I don’t need you to tell me.”

“Okay, I’ll go first,” Bow shrugs. “I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about my dads, and my brothers. I didn’t get a chance to see any of them before we left Etheria and now that Prime’s forces are there…I just hope they’re okay. But I know worrying about it from here isn’t gonna change anything so I figured I’d just shoot some arrows until I tired myself out enough to sleep.”

Catra glances at him. He has a brave face on but the sadness in his eyes is obvious.

“I’m…sure your dads and brothers are fine,” she offers awkwardly.

“Thanks,” Bow smiles. “So, your turn. Why are you out here?”

Catra pulls her knees up to her chest.

"It's nothing."

“It doesn’t really seem like nothing.”

"Okay, fine,” Catra huffs. “It's…Melog."

"Is she okay?" Bow asks, a tinge of worry seeping into his voice. "Is she hurt? Did something happen? Did we do something that hurt her?"

"No, she's fine, she's not hurt, and we didn't do anything, so you can relax. Jeez," Catra rolls her eyes but her heart isn't in it. "It's just that…well, when she was telling me about how Krytis was invaded, she described it in a lot more detail. I sort of cut out bits and gave you guys the summary."

"What kinds of bits?" Bow prods.

"When Prime realised Krytis wasn't going to be easy to conquer, he changed his approach. He'd launch small attacks, not enough to do major damage, but just enough to lure the other Krytians out to help those in need. And when they were helping the injured that's when he'd strike for real, take out as many as he could in one go. And it always worked because their instinct is to take care of each other, to protect each other. That's how he was able to get almost all of them..."

"That's why Melog is the last of her kind," Bow finishes for her. Catra nods. "That's…that's awful."

"Yeah, it is," Catra nods again. "Melog says she thinks about them everyday, all the family she had that she'll never see again. And I just-"

"You…just what?"

Catra sighs.

"This is what I was doing to Etheria."

Bow's eyes grow wide.

"What? Catra, no, you weren't…you didn't do anything like this."

"Not to this scale, because we didn't have anything close to Prime's tech." Catra squeezes her eyes shut and turns her face away. "But I was doing _something_ like this. I was working with Hordak, conquering Etheria for him, laying traps for the rebellion. I took villages under Horde command. I hurt innocent people, people just fighting for their home, like Melog was."

Bow says nothing for a while. When he finally speaks, he sounds tired.

"I want to say it's okay, but it's not," he sighs. Catra curls into herself more tightly. "You're right, the Horde hurt a lot of innocent people and you played a part in that. My dads didn't even want me joining the rebellion because when George was younger, his village was attacked. Everything was destroyed. Everyone. I don't think I've ever met anyone who hasn't lost someone in the war."

Catra's stomach clenches tighter.

"I know it doesn't mean much," she mumbles. "But I'm…sorry. For what it's worth." She looks up and meets Bow's eyes, and he smiles a small, sad thing.

"I know you are, for what it's worth." He huffs a small laugh, which she echoes. "But it's not enough to just say it, you have to _do_ it."

"I have to…do…sorry?"

"Well, I mean, yeah pretty much." Bow shrugs. "Being sorry isn't just about fixing your mistakes - it's about doing your best to make sure they don't happen again. Right now, all those innocent people are facing the biggest threat they've ever faced and they need all the help they can get. You can't undo what you did to Etherians. But you _can_ fight for them now."

Catra's pauses to think about his words. It's almost comforting in a way, to know thst there is another option, rather than stewing in her own feelings of guilt.

"You're right," she says, lips quirking into a small smile. "Thanks, Bow."

"Anytime."

She smirks to herself.

"You know, you really are the heart of this group. I was definitely right to target you at that princess dance thing."

"Thaaanks?"

Catra glances over at him with a grin. His eyebrows are raised bemusedly and she can't resist the snickers that burst out of her. He joins in halfheartedly and his strained attempt only makes her laugh harder.

When she finally stops she beams widely at him, which seems to calm him down as he realises she was joking. He smiles too.

"Aww, who's a good kitty," he coos, reaching for her ears.

"Stop that," she snaps, batting his hand away.

"Stopping!" He holds his hands up in surrender, but his expression is far from remorseful. Catra growls and rolls her eyes, turning away. She glances at him through the corner of her eye, only to catch him doing the same. They chuckle in a silently agreed truce.

"I'm gonna head in," Bow eventually says with a yawn, getting up and leaping off the pile of rubble. "Don't stay out too long - we've got a busy day tomorrow."

"Okay, _dad_ ," Catra teases and he shakes his head with a laugh as he walks towards the ship. Catra looks back out over the tragic but beautiful landscape of Krytis.

The gnawing feeling of guilt in her gut is still somewhat present, but it is joined by a renewed sense of purpose and determination in her chest. She's going to do everything she can to stop Prime. She's going to fight for the Etherians she hurt. She's going to fight for Adora, for Scorpia, for Entrapta. For Melog.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the end, hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> In the notes of the first part of this series, I mentioned that one of my issues with Catra's redemption is that they don't actually have any character - herself included - acknowledge that she enacted A LOT of damage on Etheria while acting as Hordak's right hand, despite knowing what the Horde was doing was wrong. My personal HC explanation as to why she felt no guilt for the damage she was doing to innocent people is that she never learned to take responsibility for her actions so she just didn't really put "I am effectively running the Horde" and "the Horde is killing innocent people" together. 
> 
> In the canon of this series, she started considering that her actions have extremely severe consequences when Glimmer told her she was responsible for Angella's death. Now, meeting Melog and seeing from the other perspective the impact a conquering force has, she feels immense guilt. Enter: Bow. 
> 
> TL;DR, learning what Melog went through in the face of the Horde causes Catra to do some more soul searching.


End file.
